Monday's storms bring needed rain without damage seen recently

Farmers see mixed bag from severe weather

For the most part, it seems the South Plains caught a break Monday night.

Severe thunderstorms moved through the region and produced a lot of rain without the damage seen in recent weeks.

According to the National Weather Service Office in Lubbock, 1.41 inches of rain fell near the Science Spectrum, with .29 inches near the airport and .59 inches by 90th Street and Slide Avenue.

“We’ve had quite a few places receive more than an inch of rain, so this was a good soaking for some people,” said Brad Charboneau, a meteorological intern with the weather service, on Monday night, June 17.

Monday’s wind gusts reached 65 mph at Wolfforth and Woodrow, and were as high as 67 mph at Childress, according to John Lipe, meteorologist at the National Weather Service. The fastest wind speed recorded by 9:30 p.m. Monday was a 74-mph gust at 8:30 p.m. near O’Donnell, Charboneau said.

Hail the size of baseballs fell on FM 1294 in an area one mile east of Interstate 27, Lipe said. Smaller hail — 1.75 inches in diameter — fell at Mackenzie Park in Lubbock. New Deal had hail that was 2.5 inches in diameter, and 2.75 inches in diameter south-southeast of town.

Lubbock Power & Light reported more than 50 outages, mostly in South-Central Lubbock, shortly after 8 p.m. Monday, but the company’s outage map did not list any ongoing outages as of 3:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Xcel Energy reported 28 outages in the region by 8:50 p.m. Monday — 27 in Tahoka and one in Lamb County. But on Tuesday, Gabriel Romero with Xcel Energy said there were no problems out of the ordinary and power lines were fine. He said rain, hail and snow don’t affect the company as much as wind, and that was mostly because of falling tree limbs.

Gary Skwira, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said there were reports of broken tree limbs, but that was the extent of the damage.

John Gonzalez of the Lubbock Department of Public Safety also said there were not any big problems during the storm. He said there were no crashes or calls regarding people stranded because of the rain like there were during the June 5 storm.

By comparison, the June 5 storm, which LP&L spokesman Chris Sims called one of the top-five storm damage events in two decades, left more than 19,000 LP&L customers and as many as 12,000 Xcel customers without power. Winds up to 80 mph dropped branches, uprooted trees and toppled power poles across the region. Roofs were damaged at the Econo Lodge on the Marsha Sharp Freeway; Lubbock Heart & Surgical Hospital, 4810 N. Loop 289; and elsewhere.

Cotton farmers across the region are viewing the last few weeks’ storms as a mixed bag.

Mary Jane Buerkle, director of communications and public affairs for Plains Cotton Growers, said the rainfall has not been enough to end the drought, but it has helped a lot of farmers water their cotton. However, some farmers have lost a significant part of their crops as well.

“The recent rain has been a blessing, but at a price for some,” she said. “The storms on May 28 and June 5 created some damage, mostly from hail.”

Buerkle said she is not yet sure how much damage has been done or how many acres were lost.